Tonight we went to scout the new township of Kangar Jaya at Seriab. We stopped for some ice cream at Mokti’s Signature, located beside Lepak King. Sometimes (well most of the time) there are no messages behind my posts, just pictures which I thought are pretty enough to be posted.
Continue readingTag Archives: Irfan
Irfan on the new desktop
When this blog was founded, Irfan was not yet three years old.
He is now an adult with many more leagues to travel.
More Aidiladha in Selangor Tales
After the MAHSA visit, it was time to take it easy. The penultimate day of our visit we scouted Kuala Lumpur, checking out Pandan Indah though there were no photos taken there. We did have lunch at Burger King at the Petronas near Lotus Ampang (formerly Tesco). We also checked out the new (relatively new for us) KL East Mall where Irfan bought shoes and got some books. One of them was a gift for Anya. Then we visited cousin Razlyn’s house. We had not seen her for years. We expressed our condolences for the passing of her father and my uncle, whom we called Anjang. When I travelled to KL after SPM for various interviews and such, I stayed a lot with them. Anjang was nothing but kind to me. At home, I gave the book to Anya and that night we had a family dinner out in Nilai. […]
Continue reading
Nipah Klasik
We discovered this really neat restaurant recently. The eatery is nestled among a thick grove of nipah plants growing out of a swamp slightly south of Simpang Empat. Besides having food that we found delicious, the actual restaurant was built on stilts over the swamp. Visitors can sit at tables over the water. The water beneath is clean and clear. No bugs bothered us. Though there were some spider webs that Irfan kept his eye on as we had lunch there. Check out the video below for a walk-through of the restaurant over the swamp.
Continue reading
Alien RPG: The Mei Mei Scenario
And so it came to pass Irfan and I tried a short, simple Alien RPG scenario for the first time when we were at Pasir Mas. Alien RPG: The Mei Mei Scenario Dramatis Personae Irfan plays Dr. Karmo the medic Anya – perhaps the youngest Alien RPG player in the world – plays Mei Mei the kid Mei Mei was alone, exploring the many dark corridors of the transport ship USCSS Anning Black. That was when she spotted seething dark mass in the shadows of the far side of the corridor. It was one of the alien creatures that had been let loose aboard the ship while most of the passengers were still in hypersleep. It began to creep towards the horrified little girl. She remembered the laser pointer in her pocket and how it used to distract cats. Then, Mei Mei pointed it to the wall beside the alien while […]
Continue reading
An Aidilfitri in Sitiawan
Hari Raya Aidilfitri was a couple of days ago as we rolled into the month of Shawwal in the year 1443. We were in Sitiawan for the holidays and here are some pics from our time there! Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir & Batin, everyone.
Continue reading
A Book Writing Project on Pulau Pinang
And so it came to pass that I was invited on another project. This time we were to write and edit an elementary-level English language school book for Perlis. The team consisted of workplace colleagues and a selection of Perlis’ primary school teachers. We had to produce both English and Bahasa Malaysia books, so we split into two groups. Like the previous month, we headed to Pulau Pinang to do our work. On the First and Second Day… I mostly worked, except for when we had to dine together as a team. We stayed at Copthorne Orchid Hotel, at Tanjung Bungah and the view from the hotel was gorgeous. Check out the photos below. Also, in the early evening after my work was done for the day, we went for a stroll at the beach. Previously we were unable to bring Irfan along as he was stuck in his polytechnic […]
Continue reading
Anya Surprises Irfan
Irfan was feeling pretty exhausted physically and emotionally having to study at his college. Well, everyone feels that these days especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has petered out this last few months. So, we thought we’d give Irfan a happy surprise by NOT letting him know that his cousin Anya was coming to visit. Here is the moment, as he was walking to where we usually waited with the car, he realised that we had extra visitors with us: After the meeting everyone went to have dinner at Irfan’s school cafe. Three Days Later… That was three days ago. Earlier today, Irfan and Anya had even more fun at the college car park with a catapult. It shot a plastic rotor toy with blinking lights into the air and, well here’s the video: It was one of the best moments for Irfan living at the school, he told […]
Continue reading
Sunset During Pandemic
These days, after the car occupancy restrictions was lifted, we travel the state a bit for a change of scenery. This is not a big state so there are not many places to visit, but those we could does not disappoint us with the quality of their beauty. One such place is the the golden hour on the shore facing Langkawi Island. Also, we still wear masks as I do not believe in risking our health with the COVID-19 pandemic still hovering over us ominously. Click on the photos for bigger images.
Continue reading
Nineteen Years of Irfan
It’s that time of the year again! In the morning, Ain made telur bungkus for breakfast with French fries. Later that evening, we went to the cafe at a hotel in town for a birthday dinner. We ordered something nice. I liked the ice cream cheese cake that Ain got at a bakery earlier, plus I love peaches. The best part was that there were not many others with us. So our little celebration was undisturbed by Guavian Death Gang. Before we left we gifted half the cake to the staff of the hotel’s cafe. We think they stored it in the refrigerator and devoured it at the end of their shift. Because of the pandemic, Irfan still lives with us. I do not know how much longer we have together before we would be unable to celebrate like this in the future. In the meantime, I am grateful for […]
Continue reading
Cousins Play Remotely
I wish that when I was growing up I could play like this with other kids. Irfan has been creating, crafting and exploring in Minecraft with his cousins. Which cousins? All of them. The latest to join is Rania. With Irfan, she has crafted an entire homestead in their server. Because she’s still 6 years old, her playtime is limited, but they do get into a lot of adventures online. Rania’s even played with Rafiq all the way on the other side of the planet! Besides Minecraft, Irfan and Rania also explore Roblox environments. Wonderful how technology allows us to play games together even thousands of kilometres apart.
Continue reading
Second Pandemic Eid of 2021
Sure, we had Aidilfitri a couple of months ago. Before long Aidiladha was before us. As usual we stayed at home. I imamed the Aidiladha prayers for Ain & Irfan. Ain made laksa johor with the help of my colleague Azreen’s pre-packaged spice. Ultimately we stayed at home and watched TV. (I put on The Empire Strikes Back for the most part.) And that was how we spent our second Aidiladha during the pandemic.
Continue reading
The Expanse RPG: Escape From Ganymede
Scheherezade Tales continues with Kazuo Khan played by Irfan incarcerated overnight in a Star Helix jail in the twin-domed colony of Uruk Junction on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede after acquiring information on his missing sister Jirou Khan and tangling with an assailant in a full-body, black combat gear. Meanwhile, the crew of the Keris Gangsa, Captain Furaha Ding, pilot Batbayar Gray and engineer Zoë Mufolosi are worried that Kazuo has not checked in for hours. They would need to take off for their return trip to 643 Scheherezade soon… Here’s a short synopsis of the actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. As per the previous entry, the video itself is embedded at the end of this page! The Expanse RPG 06 Escape From Ganymede Rebel Breakout An unexpected ally, a young 29-year-old Star Helix detective named Kessler, helps break Kazuo out of jail because the Mao-Kwikowski threat. […]
Continue reading
The Outbreak Aidilfitri II
Previously, on “The Outbreak Aidilfitri”… It has been 12 lunar months since the last Hari Raya and now Eid has returned, just in time for another nationwide lockdown. So that means we are unable to balik kampung again during the festive season. We had actually planned to spend Eid at a hotel but I decided against it for safety’s sake. For both days of Eid, we went for drives all around the state, staying away from crowds and other humans in generals. Day One On the First Day of Hari Raya, we went to nearby locations taking family photos. We stopped near Irfan’s history teacher’s house because of the greening bendang padi there. The riceplants were starting to sprout at their tapak semaian turning their nursery plots green after a month or so of being mud brown. We also went to the Grape Farm at Sungai Batu Pahat. But we […]
Continue reading
The Emptying of Nest Begins
And it came to pass that Irfan was accepted into a course at the nearby Polytechnic. For many weeks, we prepared for his going. Before long, we discovered that it was time for him to go. We drove him to the Polytechnic where he registered for his 2-week quarantine period. During this time, he would be living alone in a room with neither official activities not classes. Because entry protocols were strict, we had to follow the directions laid out by the security officers and the student facilitators. Even at the main gate, there were personnel in PPE taking our temperature from both sides of the car. The officers placed a green sticker on Irfan’s entry form which presumably meant that he was from the green zone. At his block, Ain had to ensure the facilitators that despite Irfan’s Kuala Lumpur identity card, we live in Perlis. The facilitators assigned […]
Continue reading
The Expanse RPG: Sister Moon
The Expanse 05 Sister Moon Last time on Scheherezade Tales… Kazuo Khan, Detective of Scheherezade Safety and Security Concern (S3C) of asteroid colony 643 Scheherezade a.k.a. Zadi was authorised to be transferred from the settlement to Keris Gangsa, the asteroid’s only armed patrol boat for a trip to Ganymede. His old friend Captain Furaha Ding was the commander of the patrol boat. Kazuo also made friends with the brand new pilot Batbayar Gray. En route, XO Sasithorn Fawzi was killed by a micrometeorite fragment. Weapons officer Greg Farnsworth during an EV repair job on the hull exposed himself as a traitor. He shot engineer Zoë Mufolosi, but Kazuo mmanaged to successfully incapacitate Greg with a bullet. Here’s a short synopsis, because Irfan and I made an actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. Check it out, embedded at the end of the page! The City on […]
Continue reading
The Cousins at Kangar Street Art 2.0
Once upon a time, we posted a blog article about Kangar Street Art. Some time in the last year, they have upgraded the alley to Kangar Street Art 2.0. It looks much better now even though a lot of the previous murals have been replaced. Tonight, we visited the alley with Anya and family. Here are the photos of our jaunt. It was great to see the cousins Anya and Irfan have a lot of fun together.
Continue reading